As we all know, Mountain biking is awesome! But of course not without some risk. The Gravity Guides and Coaches carry a fair bit of first aid gear with them when working, but we also carry some essential gear when we are riding for fun. At times we can all get a little too excited, particularly when we’re with our mates, or riding a new trail and the skill runs out, and we end up on the floor feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. So, we thought we would show you what First aid stuff we carry for local rides, and what we carry for back country rides to patch ourselves up, your mates, and the stranger who you find on the trail (which seems to happen a fair bit)!.
Local Ride Kit
We usually just carry a hip pack for local rides. Codgers, Sharlands, Richmond etc..
Sam Splint, foldable, moldable splinting goodness
Cohesive bandage, nice and stretchy and it sticks to itself, works really well with the splint.
Local Ride Kit … simple as.
Not a lot you might say, but these items, and a bit of imagination have yet to fail us for the most commonly encountered minor injuries. Most common injuries you may come across are upper limb injuries i.e. wrists, collarbones, shoulders, and fingers. Of course, some of you, including myself will have had some weird and wonderful riding injuries I’m sure, so you might carry something extra to cater for that issue (ie K-Tape if you have some tweaked joints). These items fit nicely in with your basic riding tools and spares.
Local Ride First Aid Kit Packed and Ready
Backcountry Ride Kit
Rides like Dew Lakes, Wakamarina, Nydia Bay, or even the Rameka are great backcountry rides. Due to these rides being a little more remote, I’ll take a little bit more stuff just in case we have a whoopsy and have to look after ol’ mate for a while while waiting for help, or while self-extracting. As you can see, I have everything organised so its easy to find. Looking at the picture we’ll go in a clockwise order from top left!
Backcountry Ride First Aid Kit
Bag with combine dressing, gauze, 4 x prima pore plasters, tape, tri bandage, 3 x saline, antiseptic wipes, gloves.
Cohesive bandage, stretchy goodness.
sam splint.
Pain relief, paracetamol and ibuprofen, antihistamine’s
Tweezers and shears.
Plastic bag, to take all your gross stuff out with you.
Gloves x 2, always good to carry spares.
Waterproof note pad, another equal medical related note pad. Both are really good to make notes on, like HR, respiratory rate etc… Helps to have some info if you are handing over
Pen, Marker pen.
Israeli trauma bandage (White packet), and tourniquet (Black). Youtube has some good videos of how to use these. (Although we suggest going on a Pre-Hospital Emergency Course/ Wilderness first aid before using)
Backcountry First Aid Kit Packed and Ready
Hopefully this is a helpful insight and might give you some ideas of what to carry. Of course, some of this stuff we hope to never, or rarely use, but when going in to the backcountry we like to pack for worst case scenario. This is still quite compact and can be slipped easily into our riding backpack.
If you are regularly riding in the backcountry then we would highly recommend getting yourself booked on to a Pre-Hospital Emergency Care course, you’ll learn valuable skills that could help you, your family, your mates or a random stranger out of a real pickle one day. The knowledge learned in the course will give you the confidence to act when an accident happens.
